I received an email yesterday from Wences to tell me that the site for the 2007 edition of MadInSpain is live, also asking if I could spread the word about it.
I was one of the speakers invited the first time around, and back then it was a bit of an experiment for Wences, who up until then never had organised an event of that scale. All of the guests were staying at the dorms of the university campus that hosted the event, which didn’t always work smoothly: there was a curfew (and yes, we smuggled in booze), and the faculty spontaneously decided to cut off internet access during the conference - resulting with me spending some time at the headmaster’s office using his personal connection to send some last minute client work back to London, under watchfull academic eyes scrutinizing my every click; and Preloaded canceling their presentation (because a connection was needed). Oh yes, I also lost my luggage courtesy of Easyjet so I ran around for 3 days in the same clothes blagging free T-shirts from various exhibitors (if any of you are reading, you’re awesome!) and showering 4 times a day to stay fresh.
Looking back, it was a great time - much thanks to Wences who worked his butt of to get everything running smoothly and looking after us. I remember him saying on the last day that it would be the first and last time he’d do something like that.
A year later I met up with him in London and he was entertaining the thought of doing another one, this time properly with a decent venue.
Looking at this year’s lineup it looks like he’s going to pull it off.
August 7th, 2007
Thanks a lot for your words Tom, I really appreciate that.
Hope you can participate at MADinSPAIN soon. My home is your home.
W.